The average attention span of internet users is virtually zilch. According to this article, people spend under 6 seconds looking at a website’s content. Can your contact details be found in less time than that?
If you had to choose just one characteristic of the internet that set it apart from just about everything else, surely it would be its interactivity? The very essence of a web page is the fact that you can click on text or pictures and be transported instantly (or pretty quickly anyway) to somewhere else. When I visit an author's or teacher’s site, I am frequently tempted to drop a line to her about her latest book, or something she said on her website.
So why do some writers throw this fantastic opportunity away by making it almost impossible to find their email address? The last time I emailed an author (about 5 minutes ago as it happens), I spent 5 minutes finding the email address and then, because it was on a different website to the one I first looked at, another few minutes trying to ascertain whether it was the most recent one!
Fortunately, there are ways you can make your contact details available at all times, no matter how often you alter your website or even change your website address. Here are a few options to consider. They are not mutually exclusive.
Use your template
Assuming you use a template for your blog posts, place your email address somewhere on it. That way, every article you create will contain your email address. I don’t do that, but it’s an idea.
Use the footer
My preference is to use my website’s footer, as shown here:
Footer of ICT & Computing in Education website, by Terry Freedman
That means that my contact details are visible wherever on the website a visitor happens to be.
Use a sidebar
Place your contact details in a sidebar that appears on every page in your website. The sidebar or border on the Writer's Know-how website is present no matter which article in the site you are looking at, which means my contact details are constantly at hand. It’s the same with the ICT & Computing in Education website.
A contacts page
Have a contact details page rather than just an email address. On my contacts page I have a Skype phone number, which protects my privacy. I used to also have a box number or Post Office number so that people could write to me. But these days that is a really expensive option, and my clients and I do hardly anything by post anyway. For an example of a contact page, click on the link called "Contacts” page on this website.
Your own domain name
Register your name as a domain name, and make sure that you buy web and emailing forwarding at the same time. What that means is that, even if you change your internet service provider, anyone entering your name in their browser will always find you. Then they can look for your contact details there. For example, if you go to www.terryfreedman.com, you will find my main website whatever the “real” domain name happens to be. Go on, try it now.
Terry Freedman qualified as a teacher in 1975, has written for educational publications since 1989, and has published this website since 1995.
